essay plans

Q - Evaluate the view that the current funding of political parties in the UK requires reform.

(2023)

PARA 1 - reform needed - there is cronyism and reform would reduce influence of wealthy donors

FOR

• many businessmen make sizeable donations to labour/conservative party and often get ‘VIP’ treatment

  • seen with Keir Starmer’s wife being donated clothes by Lord Waheed Alli. These gifts were not declared within the required 28-day period

  • Gifts from wealthy donors raise concerns about favours or access in return.

• this could be seen as undemocratic because unelected individuals are able to influence the political system purely because of their money investments

• undermines democratic principles by prioritizing personal relationships and favoritism over merit, qualifications, and the public interest.

• therefore party funding needs reform in order to promote democracy and ensure wealthy individuals have less say over political parties and the government

AGAINST - no reform needed. current system rewards based on popularity which is more democratic

• if funding reforms were introduced and donations from wealthy elites were rejected, then funding would come from the state and therefore be tax payer money

• this could create tension as many tax payers wouldn’t want their hard earned money to further the success of a party they dont support and subsequently hinder the success of the party they best associate with

• arguably this is undemocratic as the individual preferences aren’t adequately represented

• this links to the point that the current funding system is fine as parties get money based on how popular they are, which arguably is democratic as it represents the amount of support each party has

  • during 2024 GE campaign labour got over £9.5mil from donations alone. more than all the other parties combined, Tories at £1.8mil

  • this displays how labour is more popular and should therefore get more funding in order to adequately represent their supporters

PARA 2 - reform needed - theres lack of transparency

FOR

• State funding can be closely monitored, reducing shady financing that might arise with parties relying on donations from the wealthy

  • seen with the controversy with Lubov Chernukhin

  • one of the biggest donors to the Tories, giving more than £1.8m since 2012

  • questions arising about the legality of these funds

  • furthermore the “Cash for Honours” scandal (2006) damaged trust in party funding practices

• reforming the current party funding system would increase transparency in how parties acquire money, restoring trust

AGAINST - no reform needed. there’s enough transparency and reform already

• reforms already in place

  • PPEA → donations over £11,800 need to be reported

  • electoral commission has a key role in overseeing elections and political finance

• this has already vastly improved the funding system and has already done enough. further reform could ruin something

ALTHOUGH

• the fact that PPEA needs a certain amount before it needs to be reported allows for the possibility of loopholes

  • the threshold amount was recently changed from £7,500 to £11,180, possibly leaving a bigger proportion of donations undisclosed

PARA 3 - reform needed. funding makes it harder for smaller parties

FOR

• the amount of funding each party gets is wildly different and is unfair, once again undermining democracy

• political parties often get uneven spreads of funding and this leads to varying campaigns -> makes the election campaigns more exclusive and unfair as it should be dependent on manifesto policies not on how much was invested into the campaign.

  • for example, in 2024 GE campaign labour spent over £2.4mil on social media alone which is more than Reform and Green’s donation sums put together

• the advantage of bigger parties being able to spend more money on their campaigns allows them to massively improve their image while smaller parties are unable to do so

• links to the argument that the rich can buy an election by largely funding a particular party and improving their election chances

AGAINST - no reform needed. you dont need money to be successful

• parties dont need vast sums of donations to be successful

  • seen w SNP in 2019 winning 48 seats despite having under £100,000 of donation money

  • Nigel Farage got 1mil more followers on tiktok since 2024 GE despite getting just over £1mil in donations. dont need a lot of money to gain popularity and success

• small parties can still be influential even without seats

  • UKIP put pressure on conservative party, forcing them to adopt more right-wing stances and leading to the EU referendum. 

Q - Evaluate the view that the only political parties that matter in our political system are the Labour and Conservative parties

2019